"Except a man be born again,"

I am not against repentance or confession of sin. What I am against is telling people if they will repent or pray the "sinner's prayer," they will be saved. It is not biblical. Repentance and confession of sin is antecedent to regeneration and results in fellowship with God, not eternal salvation.

"Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." (Ezekiel 36:25-27)

Notice the personal pronoun "I" in this text. God said that He would do all these things. I do not read where God says "you" will do anything except obey.

"Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations." (Ezekiel 36:31)

This is repentance. It is "then," that is, after God does all these things, you will repent.

 

Jesus said, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.' This is not a false Gospel. This is a sinner's prayer.

 

Ray,romanbear; there are far too many saved people that claim that a person is saved by saying "the sinner's prayer." Well,let me ask you,is a person saved through faith,through prayer,through a prayer of faith,through faith in a prayer,all of the above,or none of the above? What is "the sinner's prayer?" I believe that use of the sinner's prayer is responsible for the lack of assurance in the hearts of many converts today.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I see what it is that bothers you, and if so, I feel the same way. The sinner's prayer may be valid evidence of repentance, and it may simply be something a person says because someone told them it was the way to get saved. But it is not repentance itself, nor is it a magical incantation that will bring about repentance or salvation.

 

I pray a sinner's prayer every single day, because in the flesh my spirit, though willing, is weak, and I sin. I therefore pray to God for forgiveness of what ever the sin of the day may be. The sins I used to do, I have repented from, but everyday there is something new that I must confront. My only salvation is that when I listen to the Holy Spirit, I do not fall for temptation. But alas, I do not listen all the time.

I also confess Jesus to be the Son of God, the Messiah (Christ) every single day.

 

Where is the sinner's prayer to be found? It is usually found at the end of a gospel tract or a printed sermon.It is often given at the close of a public message or a personal presentation of the gospel.No New Testament soul-winner instructed an unbeliever to pray the sinner's prayer,and,no unbeliever in the New Testament was ever saved by prating the sinner's prayer.Does God promise to answer the prayer of an unbeliever even when he is asking to be saved?

 

My understanding of repentance means to turn from your sins toward the Lord. If a sinner has experienced conviction then he or she is in a position where the 'sinner's prayer' can be affective in coming to know Jesus Christ. As with most spiritual issues the sincerity of the heart is most important. A sinner can pray in his head for forgiveness and say a beautiful prayer and still remain a sinner. On the other hand, a sinner can say a simple prayer sincerely and be saved at that very time. The bowing of the life before the Triune Godhead through faith in Jesus will result in personal salvation.

Some new believers will immediately experience an assurance of salvation. Other people may need the counsel of a Christian layperson or pastor --showing them from theWord of God that a Christian can know that he has passed from eternal death into everlasting life. [Romans 8:16; I John 5:13]

 

You are still not answering the question. Where does the Bible teach the sinner's prayer? "Believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" is not the sinner's prayer. It is just what it says - believe! I don't see anything about a prayer in that at all.

 

Try John 3:16!
There is also a passage that says, to wit, "with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" or something very similar (I am without scriptures at the moment but will post it later)

If that is your criteria, Where in the Scriptures is there such a thing as "THE LORD'S PRAYER"?

There are many prayer's that Jesus said, but none of them did he refer to as "THE LORD'S PRAYER".

 

Primitive Baptist,

Here is the kind of question you are asking me.

Where in the Bible does it say that God damns billions and saves the minority? And remember my spiritual brother, I need an exact statement, just like your exact sinners prayer.

 

There's a thing I would like to touch upon briefly. Many have an entirely wrong understanding of "born again". Some of it may be related to the way the Anglican version (KJV) renders John 3:7b - "Ye must be born again". In the ears (& understanding) of average man and woman this sounds like Christ the Lord sounded an ultimatum to Nicodemos and those ("Ye", not, "Thou") he represented (Pharisees & Jews). Kind of like with the import of "You must, or, are obligated or duty-bound, see to it that you get born again!". Thus it is not surprising many twisters of the Scriptures teach sinful man must do something in order to "get born-again", whatever they understand with this thing. Some heretics teach a so called "decision for Christ" must be made in order to "get born again". Other variants are also existing of the same heresy. But according to the inspired words of Christ He gave no such ultimatum. The phrase Christ spoke to Nicodemos could have been rendered otherwise by the anglican translators of the KJB, and these were not the only Bible translators that made a more or less weak rendering of this clause. If it had been rendered as e.g.

"It is behooving you to be given birth from above" or "...to be begotten from above" the decisional regenerationists and other perverters of the truth would not find much support from this verse to their pernicious heresy. Christ did not command Nicodemos and the Pharisees anything in this instance, nor did he give an ultimatum, but stated a fact. There is no imperative mood verb here, but an indicative present active, followed by an infinitive aorist passive. This speaks of a continual need Nicodemos and others had of being once and for all acted upon by the Spirit of Christ - "to be given birth (/"to be begotten") from above". The passive voice is not to be neglected, it means the ones standing in need of regeneration by the Spirit had no part in bringing it about, quite contrary to what today's decisionists teach and believe with their sinner's prayer scheme and other deceptions.

Harald

 

Amen to that, brother. And this isn't the only case where a simply stated fact gets twisted by human reason into a command.